Climate Bill up for Vote in House

The House is voting today on the American Clean Energy and Security Act (aka the Waxman-Markey bill); at 5:30pm, members of Congress are still taking the floor to speak for or against it. Head over to Grist’s site to check out climatebill@twitter feed, or watch it on C-SPAN.

The political compromises that Henry Waxman and Ed Markey made to attract sufficient votes have significantly watered down the legislation, but its mandated reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions — a 17% reduction from 2005 levels by 2020, and 83% by 2050 — is at least a step in the right direction.

If the bill passes the House, it will also take some doing to get it through the Senate. And then we’ll need to do a lot more beyond it to really address global climate disruption.